Formalization and Informalization: Changing Tension Balances in Civilizing Processes

Informalization Revisited In the sixties and seventies, there was increasing permissiveness, together with growing leniency in codes of social conduct in western societies. Many modes of conduct that had formerly been forbidden were now allowed, particularly in matters of sexuality, and conduct and emotions became less formally regulated in such spheres of behaviour as the written and spoken language, clothing, music, dancing and hair styles. In an earlier article I attempted to explain the increasing permissiveness in terms of informalizing processes. In these processes more and more of the dominant modes of social conduct, symbolizing institutionalized power relationships, come to be ignored and attacked, with the result that the standards of social conduct change towards greater leniency, variety and differentiation. At the same time this signifies a shift in power relationships between social superiors and subordinates in favour of the latter. These developments can be interpreted in terms of Norbert Elias's theory of civilizing processes as increased varieties or nuances in the codes of conduct. Ever since the turn of the century, the life styles and standards of social conduct of the middle classes and the working classes of Europe have come to be more and more alike. In that process, the range of differences in conduct, emotions and morals has been diminished, and the sensitivity to varieties or nuances in between has been intensified. In one sense this development did not seem to be in accordance with the theory of civilizing processes: according to some formulations of this theory, more lenient standards of social conduct go hand in hand with more lenient patterns of self-control, with lower requirements in regard to emotional controls on the part of the people involved. In